Who Is Dolly?

After years of being stopped in the street and questioned about my look/laughed at/complimented/criticised (delete as appropriate) I took the plunge in early 2019 and began curating my favourite looks on Instagram. This has since become a wonderful vein of inspiration, friendships, opportunities and fun.

My first memory of style was about the age of 3 years old, weeping uncontrollably because my mum wanted me to wear grey knee socks to play-school. The life of a stressed mother of 5 probably did not account for the whims of a brat like me, but my mum did eventually capitulate and white knee socks were agreed upon! A fabulous day was had by all thereafter: style is forever.
(Thank you mum, who continues to be one of the biggest style influences in my life.)

I first realised the power of a good outfit at Top of The Town, Northampton circa 1989. I had ventured to Milton Keynes (if you know, you know) to get kitted out. As you’re asking it was a cream polar neck, brown pleather mini skirt and over the knee cream socks. I feel I should mention, none of these items were gracing the pages of Look Magazine or Just Seventeen. I saw them, I could afford them, I bought them. As I entered Top of The Town, heads turned… It was not my spiral permed ginger hair (although that was splendid) but my style was different to everyone else. That evening I talked to lots of new people and felt great – like a junkie, I was hooked!

“I saw your wigs, I knew you’d be fun!” one of my uni friends recently told me.
Dolly

Over subsequent decades and a move to London I continued to play with style: whether it was in the clubs, on campus or sauntering down Holloway Road to go to Safeway. “When I came into your room at the halls of residence and I saw your wigs, I knew you’d be fun!” one of my uni friends recently told me. My sense of style has made me instant friends on the dancefloor, in elevators, car parks, cafes and on the tube. It’s sparked conversations, interactions and opportunities that have altered the course of my life and I’m still only 47!
Through marriage, friendships, motherhood, a career in teaching, divorce and the onset of my mid-life, I am garnering more passion, energy and confidence in my own style and have stepped out into styling.
The terms ‘eclectic’ and ‘playful’ could be used to describe both my style and personality. Oh and of course, ‘broke’, ‘dirty’ and ‘blonde’.

Fashion & Style